Plastic packages are made in a diversity of shapes and sizes for the display and storage of merchandise. Some plastic packages are designed for visual inspection so that customers can make informed purchasing decisions without having to open a package, while others are opaque and provide protection during the shipping and transportation of an item.
Semi-rigid plastic bubble packages, in which a plastic bubble is molded to conform to a certain shape and size and is affixed to a plastic or paper backing, find extensive use in rack merchandising of items. Reclosable plastic packaging provides added advantages of possible "hands on" inspection of an item and storage of remaining, unused portions of items.
Plastic packaging for articles of clothing has been directed toward small accessory items like jewelry, belts, ties, and hair ribbons, and crushable items such as hosiery and slippers. Such packaging is generally of a semi-rigid bubble type or small, rigid, half-opaque hinged box type, that provides limited visual inspection of an item. Neither of these types of packaging is adaptable for larger items of clothing that would provide protection from crumpling and wrinkling and yet allow nearly complete visual inspection for consumer information.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a plastic package that would be adaptable for larger articles of clothing. It further would be desirable to provide a rigid plastic container to prevent articles contained therein from being crushed and wrinkled. Semi-rigid plastic bubbles with paper or plastic backings and cardboard boxes do not provide sufficient rigidity to overcome this difficulty.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,029, issued Jan. 3, 1989 to Campbell et al, shows a shoe display and storage device. The device is a transparent plastic container whose bottom portion is molded in a preformed shape to receive a pair of shoes. The shoes are placed adjacent each other with a toe of one shoe lying near a heel of its partner shoe. The preformed shape of the molded container bottom serves to lock the pair of shoes into position for shipment and display purposes. A variety of mold forms are employed to create shoe devices that will accommodate different sizes and styles of men's, women's and children's shoes.
It would be desirable to provide a plastic package that would allow complete visual inspection of one or more shirts for the information of a customer. Additionally, it would be desirable to have such a package maintain a shirt collar in a non-movable position during shipping, display and of storage of the shirt.